Brain Tumours - Our Unique Research Strategy

Our mission is to establish a network of flourishing brain tumour research centres throughout the UK, which together will put this country at the forefront of international brain tumour research.

We are the only national brain tumour charity dedicated purely to funding scientific research into all types of brain tumour. With our secure long-term funding partnerships covering the key salaried positions within our centres, the researchers will be freed from the limitations and frustrations of applying for one specific project grant after another in order to secure career opportunities, and instead will be able to pursue the sustainable and continuous research so desperately needed if we are to achieve our vision of finding a cure for brain tumours.

Promising scientists will be able to be trained up through the ranks and fulfil their potential, rather than being tempted into other cancer research which currently attracts greater funding, and with it greater job security. As specialist brain tumour expertise and knowledge builds, those experienced researchers can then potentially move between centres to encourage cross-pollination of the very best thinking at the cutting-edge of brain tumour research.

With job security and the ability to build outstanding teams of collaborative researchers amongst the academic and medical communities, Centres of Excellence are therefore able to develop long-term strategic research plans to explore new avenues, in order to find that key breakthrough that the brain tumour world so desperately needs, instead of thinking simply of one small project after another. Sometimes a long-term goal or a new field of research needs to be broken down into smaller parts, but that greater vision must be free to be held in the knowledge that it will be achieved.

Each Centre of Excellence will become an active partner with Brain Tumour Research. We will supply dedicated members of staff with expertise in fundraising, marketing and PR to work at both local and national level alongside existing teams at Universities and Hospitals attached to these Centres of Excellence. This dedication to the brain tumour cause therefore supports and enhances the identity of each Centre as well as that of Brain Tumour Research, providing a dynamic fundraising atmosphere in order to meet our target of raising £1 million per year per Centre, on an ongoing basis.

Our Centres will form a new and powerful network, collaborating with each other and other institutes, both within the UK and internationally, in order to accelerate progress in brain tumour research in the UK and make a clinical difference.

We partner with Researchers and Clinicians who share our vision of a sustainable, secure future for UK brain tumour research. We want better futures for all those diagnosed and living with a brain tumour.

Our vision at Brain Tumour Research is to find a cure for brain tumours. To work towards achieving this, we have established an initial five-year mission to:

Raise at least £7 million per year in order to provide long-term, continuous and sustainable funds and support to seven centres dedicated to world-class brain tumour research

Accelerate progress significantly in brain tumour research in the UK in order to make a clinical difference, through funding dedicated Brain Tumour Research Centres of Excellence

Improve the outcomes for brain tumour patients

As we develop our network of Centres and collaborations, we will continually review the research landscape and activities of these institutes to ensure that we have the right teams and research priorities in place to ensure that all 120+ types of brain tumours are being researched, to identify all causes of brain tumours, to understand every aspect of brain tumour behaviour, to discover treatments that will improve outcomes for any and every brain tumour patient. We will identify the gaps in research and work with those Centres to ensure these are covered and if necessary invite applications from other groups with the specialist knowledge to fulfil the research needs.

We are now a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC); a reassurance that our research is of the highest possible quality. It also means that the money that we give to research is automatically increased by 28%. Read more on the AMRC website.